Pininfarina's Ferrari Sergio concept car. Photo: John LeBlanc

By John LeBlanc for MSN Autos Canada

Geneva, Switzerland — With no major, international Italian auto show on the calendar, Switzerland’s Geneva event is the closest geographically for Italy's design houses to show their wares. And this year’s Swiss show was no different, with all the big studios — Bertone, IED ItalDesign Giugiaro and Pinanfarina — showing up with new concepts and show cars.

What the Ferrari Enzo's successor might look like.

By John LeBlanc for MSN Autos Canada

While most automakers simply can’t help themselves and have already spilled the bans on their debuts for next week’s Geneva Motor Show, a few have shown some measure of restraint. Here’s a short list of automaker’s that have teased us with their unveilings. Which one are you most excited to eventually see?

By Mark Atkinson for MSN Autos

And the Ganassi Racing powerhouse wins once again. The undisputed heavyweight champion of the Grand-Am sports-car world put on a clinic of hard and clean driving, working your plan and the benefits of intense pre-race preparation. When the team's lead car crossed the finish line at 3:30 pm local time at Daytona International Speedway, it cemented its reputation as the winningest team in decades. This year's Daytona 24 win was CGR's fifth out of 10 attempts, and lead driver Scott Pruett's fifth overall victory, a feat that ties him with legendary Porsche driver Hurley Haywood.

Pruett's Daytona teammate Juan Pablo Montoya was tasked with bringing the 01 BMW-powered Riley home during the final stint, and did so despite mounting pressure from second-placed Max Angelelli in a Corvette DP. Montoya's gap over Angellelli was about 22 seconds at the end of 24 hours (plus one lap) of racing, which is pretty impressive, although other years have been one by significantly less time. The defending champs from Shank Racing fielded the same five-driver lineup as last year, but suffered a broken suspension piece early in the race and went seven laps down trying to fix it. In the end, they fought back to third place, but obviously without the mechanical issues would have been right into the mix with their Ford-powered Riley.

In GT, Porsche had dominated in qualifying taking the top-four spots on the grid, but by the end of 24 brutal hours, couldn't place higher than fifth... Audi took a one-two victory with its more-generously-supported R8's, a first for the manufacturer in Grand-Am. It might have been a podium sweep for Audi had the Rum Bum Racing R8 not run out of gas late in the race. That gave the Toronto-based AIM Autosport Ferrari 458 with Emil Assentato, Nick Longhi, Anthony Lazzaro and Canadian Mark Wilkins a well-deserved podium place.

The new GX class for more experimental and environmentally friendly racecars basically saw a trio of well-proven Porsche Caymans outlast the three brand-new never-raced Mazda6 SKYACTIV entries. The Mazda's 2.2-litre turbo-diesel engines were a first in Grand-Am, but proved fragile over the race. Mazda says it planned the Rolex 24 to be one giant test and the car can only improve from here.

Another Porsche legend David Donahue was the lead driver on the GX-class-winner Cayman from Napleton Racing, while Vancouver-based Bullet Racing with Canucks Darryl O’Young and Karl Thomson finished second. 

Plenty of other Canadians in the race, including Paul Tracy, Alex Tagliani, James Hinchcliffe, Sylvain Tremblay, David Empringham, Michael Valiante, Dave Lacey, JF Dumoulin and Paul Dalla Lana. 

There seemed to be fewer yellow-flag periods because of silly driving this year and more from general wear-and-tear or unproven parts. However, moving into morning, a giant bank of fog hit the track, forcing the race to run under yellow for around 90 minutes until conditions improved.

For full results, check out the Grand-Am page.

Anyone else watch the race? Enjoyable? I can't wait to see how it'll shake out with the additional cars in the merged ALMS/Grand-Am series. 

Photos courtesy Grand-Am.

By Mark Atkinson for MSN Autos

Talk about a nail-biter... Sebastian Vettel won his third-straight Formula 1 drivers championship at the Grand Prix of Brazil in Sao Paulo this past weekend, which in turn also gave his Red Bull Racing team is third manufacturers title too. Vettel's weekend was anything but easy, though, after an iffy qualifying session that saw him start fourth. A bad start during the race saw him lose more positions, and then he got himself turned around on the opening lap before recovering in last place!

Vettel's biggest rival, Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, came into the race 13 points down, but did absolutely everything he could to pick up points, including making a late-race pass on his teammate Felipe Massa. But in the end, it wasn't enough; even though Alonso finished second to McLaren's Jenson Button in the race, Vettel finished sixth, which gave him enough points to hold off Alonso in the title fight.

The rest of the race was equally entertaining with poor weather becoming a major factor as the day progressed. There were plenty of retirements and crashes, including Mercedes-Benz' Micheal Schumacher who's hanging up his racing boots (again) after this weekend.

Did you watch the F1 finale? Happy with the result? Wish Alonso had pulled it off? Let us know in the comments.

Photo courtesy Red Bull Racing

By Greg Migliore, AutoWeek

Ferrari has tapped a high-ranking Apple executive responsible for iTunes and the App Store to serve as a new member of its board.

Eddy Cue has worked for Apple for 23 years and reports directly to company CEO Tim Cook. He serves as senior vice president of Internet and software activities for the Cupertino, Calif., company.

While Cue might not be a household name among auto enthusiasts, his work has resulted in many items that are a staple of American homes. He was integral to the launch of iTunes in 2003 and the App Store (2008), and he oversees the iBookstore, Siri and iCloud, among other services.

By Mark Atkinson for MSN Autos

After much speculation about doing a run-out season with Ferrari or another team, seven-time Formula 1 champion Micheal Schumacher announced his (second) retirement earlier today during a press conference at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Schumacher had been in his third year back to the sport driving with Mercedes-Benz after retiring from Scuderia Ferrari back in 2008. Despite displaying flashes of his old self on occasion, Schumacher's return was marked with more disappointment than success. The final straw came when Mercedes-Benz hired Lewis Hamilton away from McLaren last week, leaving Schumacher without a seat for 2013.

"Already during the past weeks and months I was not sure if I would still have the motivation and energy which is necessary to go on; and it is not my style to do anything which I am not 100% convinced about," Schumacher said. "With today’s decision I feel released from those doubts. In the end, it is not my ambition to just drive around but to fight for victories; and the pleasure of driving is nourished by competitiveness.

"In the past six years I have learned a lot, also about me, and I am thankful for it; for example, that you can open yourself up without losing focus. That losing can be both more difficult and more instructive than winning; something I had lost out of sight sometimes in earlier years. That you have to appreciate to be able to do what you love. That you have to live your convictions. I have opened my horizon, and I am at ease with myself."

We're guessing it won't be long before Schumacher turns to sports car or touring car racing, either with Mercedes-Benz in the German DTM series (alongside his brother Ralf and a bunch of other F1 retirees) or in a Ferrari 458 Italia driving at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

No matter how you feel about his driving style, on-track demeanor or decision to return to Formula 1 in the first place, you still have to give Schumacher the utmost respect simply because his name is on so many trophies and records. On to the next challenge.

By Mark Atkinson for MSN Autos

Norris McDonald from the Toronto Star Wheels uncovered what's probably one of the most head-slapping stories of the year, if not the past several. It all has to do with the modified Ferrari Enzo driven - and pitched into the ocean - by a guy from Calgary named Zahir Rana at last year's Targa Newfoundland. That iconic photo of Rana casually surveying his water-logged Ferrari is one of the most iconic images I can remember.

However, did you notice, perhaps, that he was wearing a firesuit with the Marlboro logo on the back? Turns out someone at Health Canada has, and promptly sent a note off to Targa organizer Bob Giannou, warning him of Canada's current tobacco advertising policy (i.e. there can't be any, and hasn't been for nearly a decade.)

Well, the problem is that Rana isn't sponsored by Marlboro; he was wearing one of Rubens Barichello's old suits from his days at Ferrari when tobacco sponsorship was allowed. You know, nice piece of memorabilia that go well with 800-horsepower rallying Ferraris...

I guess we'll have to see what happens if other historic race and rally cars of the days when tobacco sponsorship drove most of the budgets come to Canada. And Rana, who last we heard planned to return to this year's Targa may need to choose another firesuit from his collection.

Photo courtesy Toronto Star Wheels

By Mark Atkinson for MSN Autos

If you only peruse the final results - with Audi taking the first four places overall with two versions of its Audi R18 racecar - you'd be doing the 80th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans a huge disservice. First, last year's surprise squad of Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler, who had survived last year unharmed to win overall in an R18 Ultra, now had the pressure of trying to repeat, this time using the R18 e-Tron quattro.

It was the first time a hybrid-electric powerplant - in Audi's case, a giant flywheel that could send power to the front axle over a certain speed, thus earning it the 'quattro' designation - had succeeded at Le Mans. The sister e-Tron car looked like it might have challenged for the win near the end, but unfortunately a spin by driver Allan McNish earlier in the race put them too far behind the winning team. The two 'conventional' turbo-diesel R18 Ultras were third and fourth, although both cars spent lots of time in the garages to fix what would have been race-ending damage for nearly any other efforts.

While the big story before the race was of how Toyota was coming back to Le Mans with its own gasoline-powered hybrid in LMP1 to fight Audi, the story post-race is about Toyota driver Anthony Davidson's broken back, caused by a massive crash during the opening stages of the race. 'Ant' was taken out by a 'gentleman' driver in a Ferrari 458 just entering one of the chicanes along the Mulsanne Straight, and both cars tumbled and flew heavily into the tire barriers and armco behind it. Although Davidson has two cracked vertebrae, it was a testament to modern safety regulations that he wasn't killed.

By Mark Atkinson for MSN Autos

Guitar legend Eric Clapton is a notorious gearhead, owning at one point or another some of the most important modern and classic Ferraris in the world. From '60s V12 classics like 250 GTO SW or 275 GTS to more recent stars like the Enzo and 575M. But one of his favourites is apparently the 512 BB he owned for three years, a flat-12 mid-engined supercar that eventually spawned the iconic '80s Testarossa. 

So what happens when a storied owner like Clapton decides that he'd like to recreate the 512 but with all the comforts and performance of a modern car? He picks up the phone to Maranello and gets out the chequebook...

This is the result: the Ferrari SP12 EC. SP stands for 'Special Projects' and EC is obviously Eric Clapton. However, the 12 doesn't mean the car has 12 cylinders, although the Clapton was reportedly trying very hard to get Ferrari to stuff one inside, but was (amazingly) rebuffed. No, Clapton's in the 12th such custom product to come out of the Centro Stile facilities.

The two-tone red and grey paint evokes the 512's '70s cool, as do the matte metallic hood vents. Although the SP12 EC is based on a current 458 Italia, the wheels and triple exhaust pipes remain the only recognizable elements. The one-off skin - and it will remain a one-off as Clapton gets to keep the body molds - hides the still-amazing 4.5-litre V8 that produces a stunning 562 horsepower and 398 lb-ft of torque. An eight-speed dual-clutch transmission helps the car go from 0-100 km/h in just 3.5 seconds and should top out around 325 km/h.

So what did Clapton pay for this extravagance? Nearly $5 million. I guess 'Slow Hand' can go as fast as he likes.

By Luca Ciferri, AutoWeek

Ferrari will offer its first gasoline-electric hybrid system in 2013. The technology will be featured in the as-yet-unnamed car that will replace the limited-edition Enzo.

"We are entering the market with our Formula One-derived hybrid system, which will slash fuel consumption and increase performance," Ferrari CEO Amedeo Felisa told Automotive News Europe on the sidelines of the Beijing motor show.